Reports and Proceedings a Careful Examination of the Original Specimens of E

H. Woodward's Report on Fossil Crustacea. 563

BEPOBTS

BRITISH ASSOCIATION, SECTION C, GEOLOGY. SIXTH EEPOBT OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED FOB THE PURPOSE OP CONTINUING BESEABCHES IN FoSSIL CfiUSTACEA CONSISTING OF PBOF. P. MABTIN DUNCAN, F.B.S.; HENBT 'WOODWARD, F.G.S.; AND BOBEBT ETHEBIDGE, F.B.S. Drawn up by HENKT •WOODWARD, F.G.S., etc. INCE I had the pleasure to present my last Eeport, at Edinburgh, S I am glad to be able to state that two entire parts (Parts III. and IV.) of my Monograph on the MEROSTOMATA have been printed; and form part of the volumes of the Palaeontographical Society's annual fasciculus for 1871 and 1872 respectively. Part III. completes the genua Pterygotus, and contains descriptions and figures of Peterygotus ranicept, Upper Silurian, Lanark. taurinus. Upper Silurian, Herefordshire. ludemis. Old Red Sandstone, Kington, Herefordshire. Banksii. Upper Ludlow, Ludlow. stylops. Upper Silurian, Kington, Herefordshire. arcuatus. Lower Ludlow, Leintwardine. gigas. Downton Sandstone, Hereford. problematicus. Upper Ludlow, Ludlow. Slimonia acuminata. Upper Silurian, Lesmahagow. Part IV. completes the sub-order EURYPTERIDA, and contains descriptions and figures of the following genera and species :— Stylonurus Powriei. Old Red Sandstone, Forfar. megalops. ,, Ludlow. • Symondsii. ,, Rowlestone, Herefordshire. tnsiformis. „ Forfar. Scoticus. ,, „ Zogatii. Upper Silurian, Lanark. Eurypterm Scouleri. Carboniferous Limestone, Kirkton, Bathgate. lanceolatus. Upper Silurian, Lanark. pygmceus. Upper Ludlow, -Kington. acuminatus, „ Lttdlow. Iwearis. ,, „ abbreviates. Downton Sandstone, Kington. Sibernicus. Old Red Sandstone, Ireland. Brewsteri. „ Arbroath. scorpioides. Upper Silurian, Lanark. punctatus. Ludlow Rock, near Ludlow. obesus. Upper Silurian, Lanarkshire. - Brodiei. ,, Herefordshire. Semiaspis limuloides. Upper Ludlow, near Ludlow. speralus. Lower Ludlow, „ horridus. Wenlock Limestone, Dudley. Salweyi. Upper Ludlow, Ludlow. Two doubtfal species of Eurypterus, namely, E. mammatus, from the Coal-measures near Manchester, and E. ferox, Coal-measures, Coalbrookdale, and Staffordshire Coal-field, have been examined critically ;• and with regard to E. mammatus, I have also had the great advantage of the assistance, and rare palaeobotanical knowledge, of my colleague, Mr. W. Carruthers, F.B.S. 564 Reports and Proceedings A careful examination of the original specimens of E. mammatus has enabled me to show that four out of the six specimens known and referred by the late Mr. Salter to the genus Eurypterus are plant-remains referable to the genus Ulodendron, or to fragments of a large Equisetaceous plant, and that the two remaining parts appear to belong to Jordan and von Meyer's genus Arfhropleura, a non- descript Crustacean (or, more probably, a gigantic Arachnide), only known at present by a series of obscure fragments from Saarbruck, from Manchester, and from Camerton Colliery, near Bristol. The ornamentation as well as the form of these pieces are totally unlike any known Eurypterus. Of Eurypterus ferox I am now able to state that it is not an Eurypterid, but is referable to Messrs. Meek and Worthen's American genus Enphoberia, and that it is a gigantic MYBIAPOD, much larger than our largest tropical living species of Julus or Centipede. This is the second species of Myriapod occurring in the Coal-field of Illinois, U.S., which has since also been obtained in England. Of the MerostOmata only the sub-order Xiphosura remains to be monographed, a task which I hope to complete during the present year. At the beginning of this year I was requested by Kobt. Etheridge, Jun., Esq., F.G.S. (of the Geological Survey of Scotland), to examine some specimens of Ceratiocaris from Lesmahagow, Lanark- shire. Among them was one to which he specially drew my attention, as it presented the novel appearance of appendages on the under side of the caudal series of segments. These consist of gill-like plates, depending freely from each segment. They are no doubt analogous to those seen in Nebalia, which are supplementary abdominal gill-feet. The discovery of these organs by Mr. Etheridge, which occur also in several other specimens, does not in any way alter the position of Ceratiocaris, but renders our knowledge of it more complete. Since Mr. Salter's paper " On Peltocaris, a new genus of Silurian Crustacea," was published in 1863 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xix., p. 87), I announced a second genus Biscinocaris, in 1866 (see Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxii., p. 503), also from the Llandeilo flags of Dumfriesshire. Mr. Charles Lapworth, Mr. J. Wilson, Mr. Eobert Michie, and others, have added several fine examples of this type of Phyllopodous Crustacea. The largest of these is a portion of a carapace from Dobb's Linn, Moffat, Dumfriesshire, and appears to agree best with Discinocaris; but instead of being a carapace the size of a threepenny piece, like Discinocaris Browniana, described by me in 1866, this specimen, with its characteristic markings, gives evidence of an individual 7 inches in diameter. Another specimen of this same gigantic phyllopod was obtained from Moffat by Eobert Etheridge, Jun., Esq., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Scotland. Au entire carapace (of which three examples have been obtained), from the Riccarton Beds, Yads Lynn, near Hawick, makes us ac- quainted with a new genus,, for which the name Aptychopsis is proposed. S. Woodward's Report on Fossil Crustacea. 565 It measures 1^ inches in length and If of an inch across the carapace. The nuchal suture is straight (not semicircular, as in Peltocaris), and it has a well-marked dorsal suture, which again separates it from Discinocaris, in which the dorsal suture is absent. I name this species Aptyehopsis Wilsoni, after its discoverer. Another and more oval-formed but equally perfect carapace of a smaller species, from the Moffat Anthracitic Shales, measuring 8 lines long by 7 lines broad (having the triangular cephalic plate in situ), I have named Aptichopsis Lapworihi, after Mr. Lap worth, who has devoted so many years to the investigation of the geology of Galashiels and the surrounding district. A third species, very distinct from the foregoing two, obtained from the Buckholm Beds (which is finely striated concentrically, and is 7 lines in diameter), I have named Aptychopsis glabra. There are several other examples from this rich locality, including specimens of Peltocaris aptychoides, species of Dithyrocaris, Ceratiocaris and portions of the scale-marked integument of Pterygotus. I have lately received from Mr. Thomas Birtwell, of Padiham, Lancashire, two specimens of a new Limuloid crustacean, in which all the thoracico-abdominal segments are welded together into one piece, as in the modern Idmulus, but without any trace of seg- mentation along the margin. The head-shield is also smooth, the compound eyes are small, but the larval ocelli are very distinctly seen, and are almost as large as in the modern king-crabs. The specimen is only 8 lines wide and 8 long, it is remarkably convex in proportion to its size. I have named it after its discoverer Prestwichia Birtwelli. (See GEOL. MAS., 1872, Vol. IX., p. 440, PI. X., Figs. 9, 10.) Another new Limuloid crustacean, specimens of which have been obtained from the Dudley Coalfield, and also from Coalbrookdale, has the five thoracic segments free and movable (as in Bellinurus bellulus of K&nig), but the pleurae are bluntly acuminate, not finely pointed, as in B. bellulus, and the head-shield is not armed with long and pointed cheek-spines, as in that species. I propose to name it Bellinurus Konigianus, after the distinguished author of the " Icones Fossilium Sectiles," formerly Keeper of the Mineral and Fossil Collections in the British Museum. (See GEOI» MAG., 1872, Vol. IX., p. 439, PI. X., Fig. &.) Of foreign Palasozoic Crustacea, a remarkable' new Trilotate (obtained by Dr. W. G. Atherstone, of Graham's Town, Cape Colony), from the Cock's Comb Mountains, South Africa, deserves to be noticed here. It is a new and elegant species of Encrinurus (measuring three inches in length), preserved in the centre of a hard concretionary nodule, which has split open, revealing the Trilobite itself in one piece and a profile of it on the other. The profile shows that each of the eleven free body-segments was armed with a prominent dorsal spine nearly half an inch in length, whilst the pygidium was similarly terminated by an even longer spine. 566 Reports and Proceedings— slightly recurved at its extremity, and all of the spines annulated, as if composed of a large number of joints. Encrinuri with two (and in one case even with three) dorsal spines have been obtained in considerable numbers, both at Dudley and Malvern, and may be seen in Dr. Grindrod's collection, and in the British Museum and many other places; but a Trilobite with such an array of long dorsal spines as is presented by this African species is very remarkable, and for an Encrinurus quite unique. I have named it after its locality E. crista-galli, which is doubly appropriate. (See Proceedings Geol. Soc. Lond., Nov. 20, 1872.) Among the specimens sent me up by Mr. Birtwell from Lancashire, from the Ironstone of the Coal-measures (so rich in organic remains), was one not referable to the Crustacea. On examination it proves to be a new and very remarkable Arachnide, referable to the same genus as one described by Mr. Samuel Scudder, of Boston, U.S., from the Illinois Coal-field, under the name of Architarbus (see Meek and Worthen's Eeport on the Geology and Palaeontology of Illinois). I have named it Architarbus sub-ovalis. (See GEOL. MAG., 1872, Vol. IX., p. 385, PI. IX.) This is the second British Arachnide I have lately obtained from the Ironstone of the Coal-measures. Tertiary Crustacea.— Some time since I described two new forms of Crabs • from the Lower Eocene, Portsmouth, discovered by Messrs. Meyer and Evans in the excavations for the New Docks there. More recently I have received a fresh series, from which I have been enabled not only to re-figure and to fully describe the species named by me (on December 21st, 1870) as Mhachiosoma bispinosa, and to show both the upper and under side of the male and female, but also to record two additional forms for which I propose the genus IAtoricola, naming them respectively L. glabra and L. dentata. These do not belong (like Bhachiosoma) to the Portunidce, but to the Ocypodidce, or true shore-crabs, their legs being adapted for running, and their eyes furnished with long peduncles." (See Proceedings GeoL Soc. Lond., November 20, 1870.) This series of Crustacea (though they are exceedingly brittle and delicate) are remarkable for the perfect state of preservation in which they occur, so that we are able, in each case, to restore nearly the entire animal. Of the two new ones, it is interesting to record that they afford evidence of unmistakable land conditions, both of them being shore-dwellers, and adapted for running on the old muddy and sandy beaches of the pre-Eocene Continent. The sections still, I believe, open at Portsmouth, deserve an inspection from all who are interested in the stratigraphical geology of this series of deposits. Miocene Crustacea.—Having been requested by Dr. A. Leith

1 Bhachiosoma bispinosa and £. echinata. See Quart. Joura. Geol. Soc, 1871, TOI. xxvii., p. 91, pL iv. 2 Under the name of Goniocypoda JZdwardsii, I described a true Eocene shore- era!) from the Red Marl of the Plastic Clay, High Cliff, Hampshire, in December. 1867. See GBOI. MAO., Vol. IV., p. 529, PI. XXI., Fig. 1. IT. Woodward's Report on Fossil Crustacea. 567 Adams, F.E.S., to examine and describe a series of Crustacean remains from the Miocene of Malta, collected by him in that island, I have done so, and find them to include Scylla, Banina, Portunites, Maia, Atergatis, and perhaps Neptunus. The Scylla agrees specifically with the Scylla serrata found in the Indian seas of to-day and in the Tertiaries of the Philippine Islands. This is one of the species of fossil crabs so largely imported into China as "Medicine-Crabs" (see Mr. D. Hanbury's papers read before the Pharmaceutical Society, and published in their Journal, February, 1862, et seq.). The Banina is distinct from any recorded species, and I have therefore «to propose for it a specific name. I dedicate it to its discoverer (B. Adamsi). The occurrence of these Eastern forms, with the remarkable Echinoderms of Asiatic type, in Malta, clearly indicate the former extension of an Indian Fauna as far east as the Mediterranean, if not to our own shores. Whilst still pursuing the subject of the structure of the Tribolites, no new facts have been collected, but much has been done in the examination of larval Limulus, the substance of which I have sum- marized in a paper read in December last before the Geological Society. (See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1872, vol. xxviii., p. 46.) Dr. Anton Dohrn, without (as I think) any very clear reason, proposes to separate the XIPHOSUEA and the EUBTPTERIDA, and also the TRILOBITA, from the Crustacea, on the ground that they do not, so far as we are at present aware, pass through a Nauplius stage, but the young are like the parents save in the fewer number of their somites. He is, however, unprepared to say they are Arachnides, so that he can only place them in a group intermediate between the Arachnida and Crustacea (the Gigantostraka of Heckel). Against this course I have protested on the grounds that if we take away the Trilobita from the pedigree of the Crustacea, one of the main arguments in favour of evolution to be derived from this class, so far from being strengthened, is destroyed. From what are the Crustacea of to-day derived? Are we to assume that they are all descended from the Phyllopods and Ostracods, the only two remaining orders whose life-history is conterminous with that of the Trilobita ? Or are we to assume that the Arachnida are the older class ? " If," as Fritz Miiller well observes, "all the classes of the Arthropoda (Crustacea, Insecta, Myriopoda, and Arachnida) are indeed all branches of a common stem (and of this there can scarcely be a doubt), it is evident that the water-inhabiting and water-breathing Crustacea must be regarded as the original stem from which the other (terrestrial) classes, with their tracheal respiration, have branched off." (" Facts and Arguments for Darwin," p. 120). The accompanying Table is merely intended as an attempt roughly to indicate (according to our present knowledge of the earliest appearance in time of the several orders of Crustacea) the most probable manner in which the various groups were evolved from a common pre-Cambrian parent-stock. I have specially distinguished those which are merely persistent types, but incapable of modifica- RANGE AND EVOLUTION - or THE SEVERAL ORDER SOF CRUSTACEA IN TIME.

Explanation of Lines. Aberrant and parasitic types. Groups which possessed both persistence and powers of mo- dification and development. Persistent types with little or no variation. Groups which have died out.

• Probable common point of an- Lower Cambrian. cestral divergence.

Lawentian. Geological Society of London. 569 tion from those which were capable both of persistence and modifi- cation ; and these again from the inadaptive types which have died out. The aberrant and highly specialized parasitic types appear last in time, and mark the culminating point of the Crustacea when conditions prevailed more highly favourable to the class than at any earlier period.

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OV LONDON.—November 6, 1872.—Prof. Kamsay, P.R.S., V.P., in the Chair.—The following communications were read:—1. " A Report by P. T. Gregory, Esq., Mining Land Commissioner in Queensland, on the recent discoveries of Tin-ore in that Colony." Communicated by the Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, Secretary of State for the Colonies. According to this report, the district in Queensland in which tin- ore has been discovered is situated about the head-waters of the Severn river and its tributaries, comprising an area of about 550 square miles. The district is described as an elevated granitic table- land intersected by ranges of abrupt hills, some attaining an eleva- tion of about 3,000 feet above the sea. The richest deposits are found in the beds of the streams and in alluvial flats on their banks, the payable ground varying from a few yards to five chains in extent. The aggregate length of these alluvial bands is estimated at about 170 miles, the average yield per linear chain of the stream- beds at about ten tons of ore (cassiterite). Numerous small stanniferous lodes have been discovered, but only two of much importance, namely, one near Ballandean Head Station on the Severn; and another in a reef of red granite rising in the midst of metamorphic slates and sandstones at a distance of about six miles. The lodes run in parallel lines bearing about N. 50° E.; and one of them can be traced for a distance of nine or ten miles. The ore, according to Mr. Gregory and Mr. D'Oyly Aplin, is always associated with red granite, i.e. "the felspar a pink or red orthoclase, and the mica generally black; but when crystals of tin-ore are found in situ, the mica is white." The crystals of tin-ore are generally found in and along the margins of quartz threads or veins in bands of loosely aggregated granitoid rock, but are sometimes imbedded J.n the micaceous portions. The report concludes with some state- ments as to the present condition and prospects of the district as regards its population. 2. " Observations on some of the recent Tin-ore Discoveries in New England, New South Wales." By G. H. F. Ulrich, Esq., F.G.S. The district referred to by the author is in the most northern part of the colony of New South Wales, almost immediately adjoining the tin-region of Queensland described in the preceding report. It forms a hilly elevated plateau, having Ben Lomond for its highest point, nearly 4,000 feet above the sea-level. The predominant rocks are granite and basalt, inclosing subordinate, areas composed of' metamorphic slates and sandstones; the basalt has generally broken through the highest crests and points of the ranges, and spread in extensive streams over the country at the foot. 570 Reports and Proceedings—

The workings of the Elsmore Company, situated on the north- west side of the Macintyre river, about twelve miles E. of the town- ship of Inverell, include a granite range about 250 feet in height and nearly two miles in length. The granite of the range is micaceous, with crystals of white orthoclase, and is traversed by quartz-veins which contain cassiterite in fine druses, seams, and scattered crystals, and by dykes of a softer granite, consisting chiefly of mica, and with scarcely any quartz, in which cassiterite is distributed in crystals, nests, and bunches, and also in irregular veins of several inches in thickness. This granite yields lumps of pure ore up to at least 50 lbs. in weight. The quartz-veins contain micaceous portions which resemble the "Greisen" of the Saxon tin-mines. The deepest shaft sunk in one of the quartz-veins was about 60 feet in depth. The author notioed certain minerals found in association with the tin-ore, and the peculiarities of the crystalline forms presented by the latter. The drift is very rich, and consists of a generally distributed recent granitic detritus, from 6 in. to 2 ft. thick, and of an older drift (probably Pliocene) capping the top of the range, and probably dipping beneath the adjoining basalt. The washing of the granite detritus gives from 3 ozs. to more than 2 lbs. of ore per dish (of about 20 lbs.)- The older drift is rather poor in tin to within about a foot of the bottom ; but the bottom layer is in part very rich, some having yielded as much as 6 lbs. of ore per dish. The author also described the Glen Creek, about 40 miles north of the Elsmore mine, from the surface deposits of which tin-ore has been obtained by washing. The course of the creek is mostly through a black hard slate destitute of fossils; but at one part, for about 10 chains, its bed consists of a fine-grained hard granite, with numerous veins of arsenical and copper pyrites, and one solid vein of tin-ore, about J in. in thickness, all of which pass from the granite into the slate without any interruption or change, the passage from one rock into the other being also gradual. The chief underlying rock of the district is a black slate, but dispersed thrcAigh it are small outcrops of a rather coarse-grained micaceous granite, close to one of which several veins of solid tin- ore, from 1 to 4 inches thick, have been found traversing the slate rock. The tin-ore disseminated through the surface-deposits has been derived from these veins and from a very hard and tough greenstone (diabase), which occurs in large dykes and patches in various places, and is probably younger than the granite. In conclusion the author referred to the probability that a defi- ciency of water may prove a great obstacle to the full development of the tin-mining industry in this district, but stated that " it seems not unlikely that the production of tin-ore from this part of Australia will reach; if not surpass, that of all the old tin-mining countries combined." DISCUSSION.—Mr. Daintree commented on the enormous value of the 170 miles of frontage for stream-tin works exposed in Queensland. The value of these alone would, according to Mr. Gregory's calculation, be some £13,000,000; taking an Geological Society of London. 571 equal value for those of New South Wales, there would be lying on the surface something like twenty-five times the whole amount of tin annually produced in Cornwall. In addition to this, there were lodes of immense length and richness. At the same time there were large tracts of similar granite to that containing the stanniferous veins still unexplored in other parts of Queensland. What amount also of tin-bearing drift might exist under the tracts of basalt was still unascertained. The tin and other minerals were, he observed, limited to the palseozoic and metamorphic districts traversed by dykes, such as those mentioned in Mr. Ulrica's paper; and although very large areas of granite similar to that of the Severn river were to be found in other parts of Queensland and Australia, the stanniferous portions would be confined to the areas traversed by such dykes. 3. " On the included Eock-fragments of the Cambridge Upper Greensand." By W. Johnson Sollas and A. J. Jukes-Browne. Communicated by Prof. Bamsay, F.E.S., P.G.S. The occurrence of numerous subangular fragments in the Upper Greensand formation was so far remarkable that it had already attracted the notice of two previous observers (Mr. Bonney and Mr. Seeley), who had both briefly hinted at the agency of ice. While ignorant of the suggestions of these gentlemen, the authors of this paper had been forced to the same conclusion. A descriptive list had been prepared of the most remarkable of the included fragments. The infallible signs of the Upper Greensand origin consisted in incrustations of Plicatula sigillum, Ostrea vesiculosa, and "Copro- lite," without which, it was stated, the boulders would be undistin- guishable from those of the overlying drift. The following gene- ralizations were then put forward:— 1. The stones are mostly subangular; some consist of friable sandstones and shales, which oould not have borne even a brief journey over the ocean-bed. 2. Many are of large size, especially when compared with the fine silt in which they were embedded; the stones and silt could not have been borne along by the same marine current. 3. The stones are of various lithological characters, and might be referred to granitic schistose, volcanic and sedimentary rocks, probably of Silurian, Old Eed Sandstone, and Carboniferous age. Such strata are not found in situ in the neighbourhood, and the blocks must have come from Scotland or Wales. Numerous arguments were adduced in favour of their Scottish derivation. The above considerations, that numerous rock-fragments, some of which are very friable, have been brought from various localities and yet retain their angularity, were thought sufficient evidence for their transportation by ice; the majority showed no ice-scratches, but the small proportion of scratched stones in the moraine matter borne away on an iceberg, and the small percentage of ice-scratched boulders in many deposits of glacial drift, show that the absence of these strife is not inconsistent with the glacial origin of the included fragments. Besides this the stones of the Greensand consisted of rock, from which ice-marks would readily have been re- moved by the action of water. The authors stated, however, that they had found more positive evidence in a stone which was unmis- takably ice-scratched, consisting of a siliceous limestone, and preserved in the Woodwardian Museum. The fauna, so far as it proved 572 Reports and Proceedings— anything, suggested a cold climate ; though abundant, the species were dwarfed, in striking contrast to those of the Greensand of Southern England and the fauna of the succeeding Chalk. The authors concluded that a tongue of land separated the Upper Green- sand sea into two basins, the northern of which received icebergs from the Scottish-Scandinavian chain ; the climate of this was cold, that of the southern basin much warmer. DISCUSSION. — Mr. Seeley gave some history of the specimens in the Wood- wardian Museum, on which the paper was partly founded, some of which had been collected by the late Mr. Lucas Barrett, and others by himself. He thought that some of the scratches on one of the specimens from Grautehester might be of modern origin, and doubted whether the place of derivation of most of the blocks was Scot- land. Besides the rocks mentioned, he had found fragments of Magnesian-limestone and columns of Poterioerinus. He could not agree with the authors as to the physical geography of Britain during the Upper Greensand period. He considered that it was from the denudation of the great barrier mentioned in the paper that much of the material of the Upper Greensand was derived; and disputed the value of conclu- sions as to climate founded on so small an area of induction. Mr. Walker did not agree with the author as to the absence of large Ammonite* in the Cambridge Greensand, and of fossils in the Gault of the neighbourhood of Cambridge; the latter had been found by Mr. Keeping at Upware. He inquired in what state of combination the phosphorie acid was supposed to be brought from Scotland. Mr. Sollas, in reply, pointed out the angularity of some of the specimens, such as to him seemed incqnsistent with any other means of transport than that of ice, and the difficulty attending the supposition that the blocks were derived from any other than a northern source. He thought that the large Ammonites were derived from a lower bed in the Gault than the upper point, from which he had supposed a large portion of the Upper Greensand fossils had been derived. He considered that the phosphoric acid had been conveyed along the sea-bottom, combined with some base, and that the combination was in a comminuted condition. Mr. Jukes-Browne also replied, and pointed out that in his yiew the London and Harwich anticlinal had been covered with a great thiekness of Gault at the time of the deposit of the Upper Greensand. Prof. Eamsay, in winding-up the discussion, expressed an opinion that the forms of pebbles of glacial origin might be recognized by an experienced eye even though the striae had been worn off, and that some of the pebbles exhibited showed traces of such an origin. He called attention to the fact that the deposit of glaciated pebbles in any particular locality did not in any way involve the existence of arctic conditions at that spot, though they might exist elsewhere.

GEOLOGISTS' ASSOCIATION.—November 1st, 1872.—The Eev. T. Wiltshire, M.A., F.G.S., etc., President, in the Chair.—"On the Influence of Geological Seasoning on other Branches of Knowledge." By Hyde Clarke, Esq., D.C.L. After referring to his paper at the installation of the Association, "On Geological Surveys," Mr. Clarke said there was a direct and indirect action produced by geology, which had operated remarkably on the substance and modes of thought in the present day. Being a science of observation, it had tended to confirm the practice of observation. The determination of stratification of itself exercised a potent effect on modern thought, because with it were connected the ideas of succession and pro- gression. Eeasoning by analogy will always prevail in things human against all objectors, because, after all, as in things human the mind recognizes symmetry, so reasoning by analogies becomes reasoning by probabilities. Thus, the analogies of stratification, Geologists' Association. 573 and its palaeontological relations, affected natural history, and indeed most branches of philosophy. The nomenclature of geology was applied to political discussions, and carried even into the columns of journals and periodicals. A consequence of stratification, mineralogical and palseontological, in extension of succession, is the acknowledgment of the passage of greater epochs of time than had been heretofore admissible in history or chronology. Thus, too, the range of the infinite in space, extended by the investigation of the fixed stars, was fortified by the element of the eternal in time. This contemplation affected not only the early narrations of the historian, but it also gave evidence of fixity and stability in the conditions of the universe. After alluding to the testimony as to the relations of light afforded by the eye of the Trilobite, the support given by geology to the speculations of the natural philosopher was mentioned in the examples of the powers of water, fire, and electro-magnetism, and their connexion with the phenomena of the universe, as illus- trated by late investigations of the sun's photosphere, of meteors, and comets. Geography has had to regard the effects of the past and the present, and to consider the connexion of countries by their strata and mineral relations, and also the distribution of plants and animals. The fossil marine fauna and flora were the introduction to what is yet to be discovered at the bottom of the ocean. Thus, geology anticipates geography and natural history, and gains a fore- cast of events. Meteorology has expanded its range to embrace a knowledge of the vicissitudes and changes of climate, which have left the vestiges of glacial action in the tropics and planted tropical remains in the polar regions. As the bonds of restriction of thought by prejudice are loosened, und our grasp gains in freedom, the dreams of the past acquire consistency. We have seen the dragons of folk- lore, and have found the abodes of the man-eating ogres, and handled their weapons and tools. It is in philosophy, including theology, that the effect of geological discussions may most clearly be dis- oovered. The English on both sides of the Atlantic have more especially promoted these discussions and the advance of geological studies, which in their early contests against prejudice could be best cultivated under free institutions. The conflict with the schools of theological interpretation has most usefully taken place in those countries where the subjects were exposed to the investigation and examination of men, compelled to give a reason for their faith. In theology a salutary breadth had been given to the interpretations of historical portions of the Scriptures, and the canon which divides the domain between science and theology had been re-enacted. The course of geology has influenced those sects of thought into which in all time men have been divided. Its facts and teachings have been adopted by those who accept the perpetual succession of matter, and have led to most brilliant speculations, for the development of which, by great men of science, the students of the world anxiously await. To the other school, of those who acknowledge evidences of design, geology affords, in its facts, abundant confirmation. Ethnology, in its subject of men, is the nobler science and earlier in 574 Correspondence—Mr. Horace B. Woodward. its traditions, but it has been greatly favoured by the advance of geology, and is thereby acquiring the claims of an exact and recognized department of science; whatever its development, the mode of reasoning adopted must ere long be acted upon by that worked out in geology.

BOTJLDEK CLAY (f) IN DEVONSHIRE- SIB,—Eapid traverses and hasty observations have been rather severely criticized in a recent number of your MAGAZINE ; but it is possible that even in a hurried visit one may make some useful suggestion. During a recent erratic traverse I saw what I took to be Boulder Drift in Devonshire. Coming from South Wales to Tiverton by way of Worcestershire, I was much struck with the similarity of some of the drift deposits in that part of Devonshire to those boulder beds which obscure a great part of the country between Cardiff and Bridgend, where I was engaged for some time, and often with much " scientific use of the imagination," in com- pleting the re-survey of the southern part of Glamorganshire, which was chiefly done by Mr. Bristow. The deposits in both areas are made up of what may be local materials, at any rate they have not come from far, being large boulders of Carboniferous sandstones and grits, quartz, and Old Eed Sandstone. Those in South Wales are clearly of glacial origin. May we not, therefore, look upon these deposits in Devonshire •which possess an identity in character as being of similar origin ? These are, of course, the ordinary river gravels as well in these parts; but the position of some of the deposits in many places near Tiverton, which were pointed out to me by Mr. Ussher, forbids any notion of their being due to the action of rain and rivers: they seem to have been deposited after the land obtained its present general features, and being irrespective of any level, occupying the highest ground, and sometimes coating the hills, as they are coated in South Wales, we can see no traces of marine action in their formation. Some of the gravels and boulder beds near Tiverton are no doubt very largely made up of oldTriassic conglomerates. Although this is only a suggestion, it may be interesting to bring it forward, as the evidence of Glacial deposits in the south-west of England has received some little attention. Some years ago Mr. Ormerod ascribed a glacial origin to some " old gravels" in the valley of the Teign. (GBOL. MAG. Yol. VI., 1869, p. 40.) Mr. Mackintosh had previously observed what he thought might be glacial scratches on some exposures of Mountain Limestone " near the summit of the hill to the north of Axbridge," Somerset (GEOL. MAG. Vol. III. 1866, p. 574); and very recently Mr. Perceval has given a note on a Boulder found near Old Cleeve, West Somerset. (GBOL. MAG. April, 187'2, p. 177). Mr. Moore, too, sees evidences of glaciation around Bath (Bath Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Field Club, March 10, 1869). QTJEEN CAMEL, 2Zrd September, 1872. HoEACB B. WoODWAED.